Welding with Children by Tim Gautreaux

Told in the voice of an old man who has four unmarried daughters who each have children, Welding with Children, is a great story about loss, hope and wishing the best for ones children and grandchildren. The grandfather is inundated with babysitting chores while his daughters and wife have other things to do. But this grandfather has a real concern for his grandchildren. He is hounded in his small town by others who refer to his car as the "bastardmobile". He takes it all in stride but is still hurt by how he is treated. The grandfather is perplexed by what his grandchildren take for granted. So he decides to tell them Bible stories so they get some important knowledge. The following is a brief excerpt from the story:

"I tore into how Abraham almost stabbed Isaac, and the kids' eyes got big when they saw the knife. I hoped they got a sense of obedience to God out of it, but when I asked Freddie what the point of the story was, he just shrugged and looked glum. Tammynette, however, had an opinion. 'He's just like O.J. Simpson!' Freddie shook his head. 'Naw, God told Abraham to do it as a test.'

'Maybe God told O.J. to do what he did,' Tammynette sang.

'Naw, O.J. did it on his own,' Freddie told her, 'He didn't like his wife no more.'

'Well, maybe Abraham didn't like his son no more neither, so he was gonna kill him dead, and God stopped him.' Tammynette's voice was starting to rise the way her mother's did when she'd been drinking.

'Daddies don't kill their sons when they don't like them,' Freddie told her. 'They just pack up and leave them.'

The story is full of sarcasm and wit that brings out the voice of the narrator.